Hello everyone,

The last two days have been long but successful. We were 10 hours at the hospital on Wednesday - 6 a.m. PET scan, then CT scan, then Echocardiogram, then more labs, then a 2 1/2 hours wait for anesthesiology / pre op. Joey was a real trooper - the worst part was the liter of berry flavored barium he had to drink! He says he is switching to banana flavor next time. Then 5:30 a.m. surgery this morning (Thursday) for the port (the place the chemo will go in) and bi-lateral bone marrow biopsies. He was out by 10:00 a.m. but took a while get over the nausea. We made it home around 1:30 p.m. and he slept for a while but was up and moving around slowly by evening. He is just out taking the dog for a walk now. He is a little sore but pretty much in great shape and high spirits.

The spirit is coming from the news he has nothing he has to do until Monday and most important he can get back on the golf course at 10:10 a.m. Saturday morning! Watch out world!!! (The exact time is because even still under the effects of the anesthesia he quickly calculated 48 hours from end of surgery). So all is right in his slightly off-kiltered world.

As far as test results and the staging of the cancer everything is looking quite good. We will have a conference Monday to get the stage and treatment protocols (drugs, timing, etc.) So we wait - but we have all indications and optimism he will be staged as intermediate (or late stage 2).

Thank you all for the well wishes, prayers, support and calls - it is these that are keeping us all sane, encouraged, positive and which have brought all the good reports we have received so far.

Love to all of you
Cindy